Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Let's Grow a Garden

Though my son has long since outgrown board books, since we are out at our farm this morning awaiting a soil delivery for our vegetable garden, I felt the post apropos. Plus I will never, ever, ever tire of indulging myself with Fukikawa illustration. What an instant sight memory for my childhood. The multicultural kids with their tiny dot eyes and adorable round faces. The little overalls and outfits and animals sniffing around. Her pages are filled with frolicking and joy and nature, truly a picture of what life was meant to be.

That drawing of the children looking through the seed packets at the feed store? Shoot, that's something I still love doing. The innocence and excitement of looking at all the different pictures and imagining what you can grow and do. The packaging perfect for little hands. So simple and idealistic... the moments we all hope our children will have to remember in years to come!

It looks like spring is here!
Let's grow a garden,
full of good and tasty vegetables.
We start by
getting little packets of seeds,
and tiny, leafy
seedlings all ready
to plant.
Then we put then in
the earth in
neat and tidy rows.
And there it is...
our garden!

Like Our Best Friends, the back of the book informs that there were a number of these square board books in this series, some of which I remember... some I've never had the pleasure of perusing: Puppies, Pussycats and Other Friends, Let's Play, Let's Eat, Sleepy Time, Can You Count?, Babes of the Wild, Betty Bear's Birthday, Surprise! Surprise!, Millie's Secret and My Favorite Thing. What an amazing legacy to have created so many wonderful memories for so many children. It is knowing there are more books out there like this to discover that makes my baby's fleeting childhood all the more devastating. Truly brings meaning to the phrase "so many books, so little time".